AUTHOR=Guo Mingwei , Li Jiahang , Dong Xuechao 

TITLE=Determining the Critical Slip Surface of Slope by Vector Sum Method Based on Strength Reduction Definition

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Earth Science

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2022.865017

DOI=10.3389/feart.2022.865017

ISSN=2296-6463

ABSTRACT=Slope-stability assessment involves the location of critical slip surface and the corresponding factor of safety (FOS). Considering force-vector characteristics, the vector sum method was further studied based on strength reduction definition of FOS and stress field of slope, and the FOS can be calculated directly by force limit equilibrium equation on global sliding direction of slope. For the sliding direction, it is rigidly proved to be determined only by the sliding shear stress along the slip surface based on the principle of minimum potential energy. Then, two examples with fixed slip surface was analyzed and the results were compared with rigorous Morgenstern–Price method. Finally, two examples from the literature are investigated for searching the critical slip surface using the proposed method and a real-coded genetic algorithm. The calculated results revealed the rationality of the proposed method for both fixed slip surfaces and critical slip surface from the literature in slope stability assessment. This proposed method provides a new path to assess the slope stability, which is worth to be further studied in practical engineering.